Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев; – 24 March 1948) was a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
philosopher,
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
, and
Christian existentialist
Christian existentialism is a theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology. The school of thought is often traced back to the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855 ...
who emphasized the
existential
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
spiritual significance of
human freedom and the human person. Alternative historical spellings of his surname in English include "Berdiaev" and "Berdiaeff", and of his given name "Nicolas" and "Nicholas".
Biography
Nikolai Berdyaev was born at
Obukhovo,
Kiev Governorate
Kiev Governorate, r=Kievskaya guberniya; uk, Київська губернія, Kyivska huberniia (, ) was an administrative division of the Russian Empire from 1796 to 1919 and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1919 to 1925. It wa ...
(present-day Obukhiv,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
) in 1874, in an
aristocratic
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At the time of the word' ...
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
family. His father, Alexander Mikhailovich Berdyaev, came from a long line of
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility (russian: дворянство ''dvoryanstvo'') originated in the 14th century. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members (about 1.1% of the population) in the Russian Empire.
Up until the February Revolutio ...
. Almost all of Alexander Mikhailovich's ancestors served as high-ranking military officers, but he resigned from the army quite early and became active in the social life of the aristocracy. Nikolai's mother, Alina Sergeevna Berdyaeva, was half-French and came from the top levels of both French and Russian nobility. He also had
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
and
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different origins.
![Nikolay Berdyaev](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Nikolay_Berdyaev.jpg)
Berdyaev decided on an intellectual career and entered the
Kiev University
Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...
in 1894. It was a time of revolutionary fervor among the students and the
intelligentsia. He became a
Marxist for a period and was arrested in a student demonstration and expelled from the university. His involvement in illegal activities led in 1897 to three years of internal
exile to
Vologda
Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population:
The city serves as a major transport hu ...
in northern Russia.
A fiery 1913 article, entitled "Quenchers of the Spirit", criticising the
rough purging of
Imiaslavie
''Imiaslavie'' (russian: Имяславие, literally "praising the name") or ''Imiabozhie'' (), also spelled ''imyaslavie'' and ''imyabozhie'', and also referred to as onomatodoxy, is a Christian dogmatic movement that asserts that the name of ...
Russian monks on
Mount Athos by the
Holy Synod
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox C ...
of the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
using tsarist troops, caused him to be charged with the crime of
blasphemy, the punishment for which was exile to
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
for life. The
World War
A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...
and the
Bolshevik Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
prevented the matter coming to trial.
[''Self-Knowledge: An Essay in Autobiography'', by Nicolas Berdyaev (Author), Katharine Lampert (Translator), Boris Jakim (Foreword) .]
Berdyaev's disaffection culminated, in 1919, with the foundation of his own private academy, the ''"Free Academy of Spiritual Culture"''. It was primarily a forum for him to lecture on the hot topics of the day and to present them from a Christian point of view. He also presented his opinions in public lectures, and every Tuesday, the academy hosted a meeting at his home because
official Soviet anti-religious activity was intense at the time and the official policy of the Bolshevik government, with its
Soviet anti-religious legislation
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, strongly promoted
state atheism
State atheism is the incorporation of positive atheism or non-theism into political regimes. It may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments. It is a form of religion-state relationship that is usually ideologically l ...
.
In 1920, Berdiaev became professor of philosophy at the
University of Moscow
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. In the same year, he was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the government; he was arrested and jailed. The feared head of the
Cheka,
Felix Dzerzhinsky, came in person to interrogate him,
and he gave his interrogator a solid dressing down on the problems with Bolshevism.
Novelist
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repres ...
in his book ''
The Gulag Archipelago
''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr So ...
'' recounts the incident as follows:
erdyaevwas arrested twice; he was taken in 1922 for a midnight interrogation with Dzerjinsky; Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ('' né'' Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician.
Born in Moscow to parents who were both involved in revolutionary politics, Kamenev attended Imperial Moscow Un ...
was also there.... But Berdyaev did not humiliate himself, he did not beg, he firmly professed the moral and religious principles by virtue of which he did not adhere to the party in power; and not only did they judge that there was no point in putting him on trial, but he was freed. Now there is a man who had a "point of view"!
After being expelled from Russia, Berdyaev and other émigrés went to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, where he founded an academy of philosophy and religion, but economic and political conditions in the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
caused him and his wife to move to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in 1923. He transferred his academy there, and taught, lectured and wrote, working for an exchange of ideas with the
French and European intellectual community, and participated in a number of international conferences.
Philosophical work
According to Marko Markovic, Berdyaev "was an ardent man, rebellious to all authority, an independent and "negative" spirit. He could assert himself only in negation and could not hear any assertion without immediately negating it, to such an extent that he would even be able to contradict himself and to attack people who shared his own prior opinions".
[Marko Marković, ''La Philosophie de l'inégalité et les idées politiques de Nicolas Berdiaev'' (Paris: Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1978).] According to Marina Makienko, Anna Panamaryova, and Andrey Gurban, Berdyaev's works are "emotional, controversial, bombastic, affective and dogmatic".
They summarise that, according to Berdyaev, "man unites two worlds – the world of the divine and the natural world. ... Through the freedom and creativity the two natures must unite... To overcome the dualism of existence is possible only through creativity.
David Bonner Richardson described Berdyaev's philosophy as
Christian existentialism
Christian existentialism is a theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology. The school of thought is often traced back to the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855 ...
and
personalism. Other authors, such as political theologian Tsoncho Tsonchev, interpret Berdyaev as "
communitarian personalist" and
Slavophile. According to Tsonchev, Berdyaev's philosophical thought rests on four "pillars": freedom, creativity, person, and communion.
One of the central themes of Berdyaev's work was
philosophy of love.
At first he systematically developed his theory of love in a special article published in the journal ''Pereval'' (russian: Перевал) in 1907.
Then he gave
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
issues a notable place in his book ''The Meaning of the Creative Act'' (1916).
According to him, 1) erotic energy is an eternal source of creativity, 2)
eroticism
Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sc ...
is linked to beauty, and
eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the ear ...
means search for the beautiful.
He also published works about Russian history and the Russian national character. In particular, he wrote about
Russian nationalism
Russian nationalism is a form of nationalism that promotes Russian cultural identity and unity. Russian nationalism first rose to prominence in the early 19th century, and from its origin in the Russian Empire, to its repression during early B ...
:
Theology and relations with Russian Orthodox Church
Berdyaev was a member of the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
, and believed Orthodoxy was the religious tradition closest to
early Christianity
Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewis ...
.
Nicholas Berdyaev was an Orthodox Christian, however, it must be said that he was an independent and somewhat a "liberal" kind. Berdyaev also criticized the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
and described his views as
anticlerical
Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...
.
Yet he considered himself closer to Orthodoxy than either Catholicism or Protestantism. According to him, "I can not call myself a typical Orthodox of any kind; but Orthodoxy was near to me (and I hope I am nearer to Orthodoxy) than either Catholicism or Protestantism. I never severed my link with the Orthodox Church, although confessional self-satisfaction and exclusiveness are alien to me."
Berdyaev is frequently presented as one of the important Russian Orthodox thinkers of the 20th century. However,
neopatristic scholars such as
Florovsky have questioned whether his philosophy is essentially Orthodox in character, and emphasize his western influences. But Florovsky was savaged in a 1937 Journal Put' article by Berdyaev. Paul Valliere has pointed out the sociological factors and global trends which have shaped the Neopatristic movement, and questions their claim that Berdyaev and
Vladimir Solovyov are somehow less authentically Orthodox.
Berdyaev affirmed
universal salvation
In Christian theology, universal reconciliation (also called universal salvation, Christian universalism, or in context simply universalism) is the doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ult ...
, as did several other important Orthodox theologians of the 20th century. Along with
Sergei Bulgakov
Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (; russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Булга́ков; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist.
Biography
Early life: 1871–1898
Sergei Nikolaevich B ...
, he was instrumental in bringing renewed attention to the Orthodox doctrine of
apokatastasis
In theology, apocatastasis () is the restoration of creation to a condition of perfection. In Christianity, it is a form of Christian universalism that includes the ultimate salvation of everyone—including the damned in hell and the devil. The ...
, which had largely been neglected since it was expounded by
Maximus the Confessor
Maximus the Confessor ( el, Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής), also spelt Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.
In his ear ...
in the seventh century, although he rejected
Origen
Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theo ...
's articulation of this doctrine.
The aftermath of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, along with Soviet interference, caused the Russian Orthodox émigré diaspora to splinter into three Russian Church jurisdictions: the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (separated from Moscow Patriarchate until 2007), the parishes under Metropolitan
Eulogius (Georgiyevsky)
Eulogius (russian: Евло́гий, born Vasily Semyonovich Georgiyevsky, russian: Васи́лий Семёнович Гео́ргиевский; April 10, 1868 – April 8, 1946 in Paris) was an Orthodox Christian bishop, who led elemen ...
that went under the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and parishes that remained under the
Moscow Patriarchate. Berdyaev was among those that chose to remain under the omophorion of the
Moscow Patriarchate. He is mentioned by name on the Korsun/Chersonese Diocesan history as among those noted figures who supported the Moscow Patriarchate West-European Eparchy (in France now Korsun eparchy).
Currently, the house in Clamart in which Berdyaev lived, now comprises a small "Berdiaev-museum" and attached Chapel in name of the Holy Spirit, under the omophorion of the Moscow Patriarchate. On 24 March 2018, the 70th anniversary of Berdyaev's death, the priest of the Chapel served panikhida-memorial prayer at the Diocesan cathedral for eternal memory of Berdyaev, and later that day the Diocesan bishop Nestor (Sirotenko) presided over prayer at the grave of Berdyaev.
Works
In 1901 Berdyaev opened his literary career so to speak by work on ''Subjectivism and Individualism in Social Philosophy''. In it, he analyzed a movement then beginning in
Imperial Russia that "at the beginning of the twentieth-century Russian Marxism split up; the more cultured Russian Marxists went through a spiritual crisis and became founders of an idealist and religious movement, while the majority began to prepare the advent of Communism". He wrote "over twenty books and dozens of articles."
The first date is of the Russian edition, the second date is of the first English edition
* ''Subjectivism and Individualism in Societal Philosophy'' (1901)
* ''The New Religious Consciousness and Society'' (1907) (russian: Новое религиозное сознание и общественность, Novoe religioznoe coznanie i obschestvennost, includes chapter VI
The Metaphysics of Sex and Love)
[The book is not available in English. For secondary literature in English, see:
*
* ]
*''Sub specie aeternitatis: Articles Philosophic, Social and Literary (1900-1906)'' (1907; 2019)
*''Vekhi - Landmarks'' (1909; 1994)
*''The Spiritual Crisis of the Intelligentsia'' (1910; 2014)
*''The Philosophy of Freedom'' (1911; 2020)
*''Aleksei Stepanovich Khomyakov'' (1912; 2017)
(1913; 1999)
*''The Meaning of the Creative Act'' (1916; 1955)
*''The Crisis of Art'' (1918; 2018)
*''The Fate of Russia'' (1918; 2016)
*''Dostoevsky: An Interpretation'' (1921; 1934)
*''Oswald Spengler and the Decline of Europe'' (1922)
*''The Meaning of History'' (1923; 1936)
*''The Philosophy of Inequality'' (1923; 2015)
*''The End of Our Time''
.k.a. ''The New Middle Ages''(1924; 1933)
*''Leontiev'' (1926; 1940)
*''Freedom and the Spirit'' (1927–8; 1935)
*''The Russian Revolution'' (1931; anthology)
*''The Destiny of Man'' (1931; translated by
Natalie Duddington 1937)
''Lev Shestov and Kierkegaard''N. A. Beryaev 1936
*''Christianity and Class War'' (1931; 1933)
*''The Fate of Man in the Modern World'' (1934; 1935)
*''Solitude and Society'' (1934; 1938)
*''The Bourgeois Mind'' (1934; anthology)
*''The Origin of Russian Communism'' (1937; 1955)
''Christianity and Anti-semitism''(1938; 1952)
*''Slavery and Freedom'' (1939)
''The Russian Idea''(1946; 1947)
*''Spirit and Reality'' (1946; 1957)
*''The Beginning and the End'' (1947; 1952)
*''Towards a New Epoch" (1949; anthology)
*''Dream and Reality: An Essay in Autobiography'' (1949; 1950) alternate title: ''Self-Knowledge: An Essay in Autobiography''
*''The Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Caesar'' (1949; 1952)
''Divine and the Human''(1949; 1952)
*
*''Truth and Revelation'' (n.p.; 1953)
*''Astride the Abyss of War and Revolutions: Articles 1914-1922'' (n.p.; 2017)
; Sources
* '"Bibliographie des Oeuvres de Nicolas Berdiaev" établie par Tamara Klépinine' published by the Institut d'études Slaves, Paris 1978
See also
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Donald A. Lowrie. ''Rebellious Prophet: A Life of Nicolai Berdyaev''. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1960.
*
*M. A. Vallon. ''An apostle of freedom: Life and teachings of Nicolas Berdyaev''. Philosophical Library, New York, 1960.
*Lesley Chamberlain. ''Lenin's Private War: The Voyage of the Philosophy Steamer and the Exile of the Intelligentsia''. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2007.
*Marko Marković,
La Philosophie de l'inégalité et les idées politiques de Nicolas Berdiaev' (Paris: Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1978).
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
Berdyaev Online Library and IndexDirk H. Kelder's collection of Berdyaev essays and quotesNikolai Berdiaev and Spiritual FreedomOdinblago.ru: Бердяев Николай Александрович(Russian)
Korsun/Chersonese Eparchy(Russian and French language)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berdyaev, Nikolai
1874 births
1948 deaths
19th-century Christian mystics
19th-century Christian universalists
20th-century Christian mystics
20th-century Christian universalists
20th-century Russian philosophers
Anarchist writers
Christian anarchists
Christian existentialists
Christian universalist theologians
Critics of Marxism
Eastern Orthodox mystics
Eastern Orthodox philosophers
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France
Existentialist theologians
Liberals from the Russian Empire
Moscow State University faculty
People from Kievsky Uyezd
People from Obukhiv
Russian anarchists
Russian Christian mystics
Russian memoirists
Russian nobility
Russian Orthodox Christians from Russia
Russian people of French descent
Russian people of Polish descent
Russian people of Tatar descent
Russian people of Ukrainian descent
Russian political writers
Soviet dissidents
Soviet expellees
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